Information technology and telephony professionals who are responsible for planning and designing Exchange messaging systems that include Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging for their companies should read these topics. Such professionals may be in the following roles:

• System architects   Responsible for designing the overall server infrastructure, developing server deployment strategies and policies, and contributing to networking connectivity design.
  
• Information technology managers   Technical decision makers, who also manage the Information Technology staff responsible for the infrastructure, the desktop and server deployment, and server administration and operations across sites.
  
• Systems administrators   Responsible for planning and deploying technology across Microsoft Windows servers and evaluating and recommending new technology solutions.
  
• Messaging administrators   Responsible for implementing and managing organizational messaging.
  
• Telephony administrators and consultants   Responsible for implementing and managing an organizations telephony infrastructure.
  

For more information, including a technical overview of Unified Messaging, see Unified Messaging Concepts and Planning.

When you plan your Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging deployment, you must consider design and other issues that may affect your ability to reach your organizational goals when you deploy Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging.

Generally, the simpler the Unified Messaging topology, the easier Unified Messaging is to deploy and maintain. Install as few Unified Messaging servers and create as few Unified Messaging objects in the Active Directory directory service as you need to support your business and organizational goals. Large enterprises with complex network and telephony environments, multiple business units, or other complexities will require more planning than smaller organizations with relatively straightforward Unified Messaging needs.

There are many areas that you must consider or evaluate to be able to successfully deploy Unified Messaging. You must understand the different aspects of Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging and each component and feature so that you can plan your Unified Messaging infrastructure and deployment appropriately.

Allocating time to plan and work through these issues will help prevent problems when you deploy Unified Messaging in your organization.

The following are some of the areas that you should consider and evaluate when planning for Exchange 2007 in your organization:

• Your business needs for Unified Messaging
  
• Your telephony network and your current voice mail system
  
• Your current data network design
  
• Your current Active Directory environment
  
• The number of users that you will have to support
  
• The number of Unified Messaging servers you will need
  
• The storage requirements for users
  
• The placement of IP gateways, telephony equipment, and Unified Messaging servers
  

For more information about support for IP gateways, IP PBXs, and PBXs, see the following topics:

• Supported IP Gateways
  
• IP PBX and PBX Support
  

New in Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

For More Information